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By Steve Mullins. Let down by your big shot ad agency? Looking for quick turnaround? Then maybe it’s time to plug into an online exchange.

US tech outfit Aquantia did just that over the recent 4 July holiday weekend after it had received the Red Herring Top 100 North America award and wanted to place an ad in the publication. However, with many agency types taking a break, Aquantia turned to blur Group’s creative network.

There’s iPhone homage to Ogilvy & Mather founder David Ogilvy in the form of app, Pitch David, which invites the public to toss their ideas to the ad man himself.

Says Pete Davis* The way brand owners buy their media has traditionally been built on a three-way relationship between the brands themselves, media owners and media agencies. However, with the arrival of various platforms and channels which encourage marketers to take more control and buy their own media directly, we are seeing commoditisation.

While I fully support marketers taking a greater interest in – and more control of – where their media money ends up, I think we have some way to go before trading media directly becomes the norm.

By Steve Mullins. Looking for an alternative to traditional agencies? Well, brands can have the pick of more than 11,000 creatives on blur Group’s creative services exchange which brings together marketers and a whole raft of professionals ready to work on campaigns.

“With us, brands are getting more choice and a faster turnaround, plus lot of the costs are taken away,” says Philip Letts, founder and chief exchange officer of blur Group. “They get all the benefits of network and it’s accessible to anyone. In 2010, we did around 100 briefs, this year we expect 500 plus.”

Help is at hand for creatives set for a client meeting but with the ideas drawer empty. Thanks to those kind folk at Tribal DDB New York, they now have the Wheel Of Concept to turn to. Go to that useful website, enter the brand name, spin the wheel and the Wheel will deliver the suggestion you need in the form of an app, crowdsourcing, QR code…

Creative services exchange blur Group boasts creatives in 130 countries. One third of its creatives and agencies come from the EU. And blur designers upload 500 images a month to their portfolios. We know all this because the company has published an infographic, the 2011 Creative World Map, with these kinds of metrics on show.

By Mark Terry. LBi has launched its mp3HD Sound Souvenirs campaign to promote next-generation digital music. The digital agency’s social media team has deployed social analytics to identify 10 big-hitting music influencers across social networks in the UK, the US, Germany, Spain and France.

Each of these ambassadors has been tasked with providing their top 10 tracks of all time to contribute to Sound Souvenirs, the mp3HD top 100 music chart.

eYeka, Promise, PRTM, Knowledge Kinetics, Treehouse Logic, Gotham, as well as thought leaders including Francis Gouillart, have joined forces to launch the Co-Creation Forum, a North America-based initiative aimed at promoting best practice and stimulating thought-leadership among co-creation practitioners, communities and businesses.